That's Sus

The other day on the Fated Mates Discord, I listed a thing I thought was sus* in a romance, and said, “I should put this on Threads.” And then instead, I was like, NO I SHOULD MAKE A LIST ON MY NEWSLETTER. I love making these vague shitposting lists, none of which have anything to do with anything except my own tastes as a reader, and all of which are blanket statements about patterns I’ve seen, not a secret call out of any one book.

*I was a middle school teacher during the dazzling rise and meteoric fall of Among Us, which is relevant only because I learned the word “sus” the way god intends for all adults to learn slang: which is having to shame-facedly ask a 13 year old to explain it to you.

1. Single narrator audio is best, or full cast if you’re rolling in money. Dual and Duet can both get in the bin. I said what I said.

2. Romance is so vast, especially now with the rise of self-publishing. No one can know everything. There are entire subgenres I only have glancing familiarity with. That’s why it’s best to follow lots of people and voices. And that’s also why it’s best not to ask me for romantasy or dark romance recs.

3. I don’t ever want to read a romance that’s RPF, and I mean EVER. If you market it as RPF, I’m grateful for your honesty so I can avoid it. If I figure it out while I’m reading, then I’ll DNF it. The idea of authors writing imaginary sex lives for real people and then making money off of it? Well, I’m flinging myself out of that car no matter how fast it’s moving.

4. Some sports just don’t make for good romances.

5. Books without interpersonal conflict are boring, actually.

6. The pacing is off.

7. There’s a difference between what readers say they want on social media and what they actually read.

8. If an author uses Heroine-only POV to hide the fact that the LI has been into her all along, I would have preferred the author to have done more work to make the LI a real, fully-rounded character.

9. I don’t enjoy romance that leverages reader feelings by making individual characters suffer. That’s what LitFic is for. In a romance, I want to my feelings to be activated by the difficulties that arise when characters fall in love and try to make a world for themselves together. Yeah, bad things can happen to people, but if it’s the only way of getting readers to feel anything in your romance? That’s sus.

10. So why do I like it when an MMC suffers? Because he finally understands that the patriarchy has hurt him, too. That his adherence to those norms and rules are going to keep him from making a world with this person he’s fallen in love with, and now he has to face the radical idea that he’s better off in a world with love, something he’s always been taught to disdain. That’s a different kind of suffering than surprise cancer.